Florida woman. Former Jersey girl/Jersey driver. Likes hairspray, the beach and cutting you off on the A1A.

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Countdown To Decorating Genius

As you know, I am no cookie-cutter home decorator. Once I bought a set of wing chairs and a coordinating sofa and chose striped fabric for the chairs and a floral print for the sofa. The store’s in-house “decorator” insisted that the fabric choices should be switched because that is what was “usually done”. That’s all he had to tell me and I was launched into a lifetime of individual choices that suited only me. Your unappreciative comments about my fabulous paint-burst ashtray did not deter me.

And now here we are at a bold moment in my personal decorating history. I’m redoing the former TV room, soon to become a home office/TV room. The theme, as best I can describe it, is Craftsman Style Meets American West Plus Pine Cones And A Big Clock. I didn’t need a decorator to come up with that.

Testing “Scotland Road” to replace the current “Old Brick”.

Perhaps you remember from my documentation of the paint color test* that the fireplace in that room does not have a proper mantle. There’s only a row of soldier bricks 4″ wide, which is an accessorizing challenge. But I have found the perfect thing to fit my new theme. I’m not going to come right out and tell you because even I recognize that this is going to be a big shock for you all.

But it’s genius. It’s definitively going to be a focal point.

Instead of just springing it on you, I’m going to describe one element of it every day for 5 days. Maybe one of you will guess what it is with minimal clues, or maybe it will remain a mystery until I tell you what it is on Saturday night. In any case, at the very least you will be able to imagine all the possibilities and when it is finally revealed, it might not seem so surprising.

We’ll start with a free bee: I found it on eBay. Act surprised!

Here’s the opening clue: the dimensions of the object. It’s 10 ” high, 14″ long and 3 1/2″ wide.

Our game so far:

Theme: Craftsman Style Meets American West Plus Pine Cones And A Big Clock